MARK Phillips has admitted that gaining automatic promotion is no longer Brentford's sole aim - they want to be crowned League Two champions, writes Richard Warwick.

The Bees took another important step towards that with a fine 0-0 draw at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium against Rotherham on Saturday - and promotion is starting to look a formality.

"I'm sure I speak for the team when I say going up as champions is the aim," Phillips told the Gazette.

"Nobody really remembers second or third so that is definitely our aim.

"The number one priority is automatic promotion, that's what we want first and foremost, but going up as champions would be a blessing.

"We're up against a big test if we want to get promoted as champions or in the automatic places. We need to be going to teams and doing a job, which we have been doing so far.

"We're not getting above ourselves at all, we're taking each game as it comes and each game is a different battle to overcome. But we're very confident as a team."

Phillips added: "The last few games we have shown that we can do the ugly side of it as well and it's all coming together.

"We've definitely put ourselves in a good position. We're up there to be shot at now. As long as we keep the performance up on the pitch, we will be okay."

The Bees have not lost more than two games in a row all season and Phillips believes that this consistency is down to the players being kept on their toes by competition for places.

"We've been very consistent and we're strong at the back which we've shown as we haven't conceded too many goals at all.

"It's difficult to get in the team at the moment as everyone's playing well and there's good competition for places. Jordan [Rhodes] has come in and done well and [Alan] Bennett is playing really solid at the back with myself.

"We've gelled as a team as time's gone on and we've been looking very solid as a team too as the season has gone on. We've got some strikers that we know will get us the goals as well.

"We have slipped up on the odd away journey to the far north, but we've turned that round with results like the draw with Accrington and the win against Grimsby which shows that it's not a problem for us.

"We've only really had minor blips and if you look at the whole picture, there are only a handful of games we've lost."

The majority of The Bees remaining games are at home and Phillips thinks these will be key to deciding their final league position - especially the crunch game against Wycombe on Saturday.

"We are looking forward to playing some home games. Our home games are going to be very important for us as we've played well there. We are confident playing at home as well as playing away and we're confident we can get something out of every game we go into.

"The gaffer will keep our focus on the games that are coming up and he won't let us get ahead of ourselves because that's what leads to slipping up.

"The main thing for us to do is to keep a clean sheet and see what we can get from there.

"Wycombe is going to be a massive game for us on deciding where we finish at the end of the season and we're really looking forward to that game."

Match Details ROTHERHAM (0) 0 BEES (0) 0 Line-up: Hamer; Halls, Phillips, Bennett, Dickson; Williams (Newton 77), O'Connor, Bean, Wood; MacDonald, Rhodes (Elder 62) (Osborne 81).

Subs not used: Brown, Hunt. Attendance: 3,406 MoM: Ben Hamer